A Simple Request

[Bulldogmikey]

We have without a doubt the best Turkey Hunting and Call dedicated site available. We have men with Dream Collections preserving the heritage of the sport and the history of the art of call making!
Bill H., Preston, Charlie, Bob, Mike, Al, Zumer, NY John, Mike K. Ralph P. Richard H. plus many many more and now we have David Ferguson from Eminence Mo. I wish we could start a history section that members could post stories and events that shaped this sport and art. Anyone else agree? Great call makers and great collectors....should be some great history behind them that is fascinating!

Mike

[3CB]

Fire it up! I love some history.

[Blackfalcon]

I like the idea of a call making history section, possibly as a subsection under call collectors

[wiltznucs]

We have without a doubt the best Turkey Hunting and Call dedicated site available. We have men with Dream Collections preserving the heritage of the sport and the history of the art of call making!
Bill H., Preston, Charlie, Bob, Mike, Al, Zumer, NY John, Mike K. Ralph P. Richard H. plus many many more and now we have David Ferguson from Eminence Mo. I wish we could start a history section that members could post stories and events that shaped this sport and art. Anyone else agree? Great call makers and great collectors....should be some great history behind them that is fascinating!

Mike

I'd probably discourage this, after a decade of turkey call collecting I've learned a few important things.  One important lesson I've learned is there is "history" and then theres "his story".  

Like fishing stories, some tales get a bit more grandiose each time their told.  Theres a huge amount of misinformation and a few unscrupulous people who live to tell it in the call making and collecting world.  There are several makers who rewrite history to fit their own needs or for their own benefit.  A good example is the sudden proliferation of checkered box call makers who were "mentored by Neil Cost" that showed up soon after Neil's death.  I'd prefer to simply let time be a measure of a call makers contribution.

In publishing of academic professional journals theres a concept called "peer review".  These peoples sole job is to fact check anything before its published.  Unfortunately theres no process comparable to this in turkey call history.  Most of the history of our passion is anecdotal and/or oral history.  This makes it very, very tough to argue for or against any tall tale we may encounter.

The ill-fated Call Makers and Collectors Guild attempted to preserve turkey call history with a group a few years ago.  I dont remember it going very well.

Just my two cents..

[GR8CALLS]

Chads' point has some merrit. The greatest difficulty we face, is that there are few who actually know the true history of some of the calls that have been shown. The real experts have passed on and their knowlege has been lost for ever.

 When the "guild" was first started, many complained that it was nothing but a bunch of friends getting together to re-write history. Those folks had no idea of what they were talking about. I had a hand early on in the shaping of the guild....unfortunately, things got clouded and some of the original recomendations we began w/ never came to pass. One of those was to take individuals w/ accurate knowlege of individual call makers and record them for a historical record. One of the top choices for this was Parker Whedon.......I had made the same recommendation to the NWTF years before, but neither was ever followed up on.

 History is a strange thing...we see it being re-written every day!

Bill

[Ferguson]

Although I don't know them, I agree with Chad and Bill. Living in a small town rich with call making history, I have heard many variations of call making history. Everyone has their version of the story. Everyone across the country wants to be like someone else. That's a shame. Being different is what contributes to history to some extent. There are not any folks around that was here making calls during the turn of the 20th century. Now there are only heirs and their prodegy left to tell their stories. The second generation of call makers from here are fading fast. There are 3 left alive and in their 80's. The third generation is scare and the fourth consists of only 2 to my knowledge. True history is diluted as we all know. Great stories are wonderful to hear and base knowledge on but the truth may be gone forever. The interest in my home towns local history on call making is flattering and I pooch my chest out when ask about it,,,,,,but,,,,Dan, Jake and Cecil are the last of the local call making history makers. They are the ones who need to tell their stories before they are gone. They are the history makers and remember their dads better than anyone else. Jack and Jim still make calls and hopefully will be for several years to come but they are at the age of retirement. That leaves John Spurgin and myslef. I've only been making decent calls since late 2008 and have lots to learn about the local history but,,,,,isn't that the way it's supposed to be? Isn't a body supposed to want to learn and carry on something they're proud of?
David

[Ferguson]

Mike

 I ran out of room before I could address your simple request. I also agree with you. It would be nice to have a spot to tell stories that relates to history. I'm sure as with all events of history there will be disagreements and arguements and even feelings hurt, toes stepped on etc. But, that goes along with it. I am eager to learn more about call making history from around the country. I find this art, skill, craftmanship or whatever you want to call it very important to the heritage of the sport. Bring on the old stories.

[Bulldogmikey]

Thanks David and everyone. I know any kind of History is subjective. It is almost always biased by the convictions of the person telling it. But, It would be of interest and of value to share some of the simple but yet important pieces that will simply fade away if they are not told. History about your heritage. History about your calls. History about your collections as you know it.  A debate on the history of Turkey calls would not be good! Lets just try  simple idividual history!

Mike

[HelsbysCustomCalls]

I like the idea of a call making history section, possibly as a subsection under call collectors

I'm with Dave on this one!!!! It'd be awesome!!!! 

[Bulldogmikey]

Porter, can we do this?

[GR8CALLS]

 Not to historical....maybe hysterical?

Back in the late 70's, early 80's there was a calling contest, here in Winchester, VA. It was at that time called the "World All-Around". Callers were required to play friction (both box call and pot call), mouth calls, tube calls and wingbone/yelpers. This contest was the brain child of Jim Clay (Perfection Turkey Calls) and a few others who were interested in finding the best caller capable of using all these calls.

 It so happens, that Neil Cost decided to make this one of his stops every year. Neil would bring along 30 to 40 calls...priced from $25.00 to $35.00.  This calling contest was held in one of the local high schools. The call makers, would set up in the gym on the basketball court. For five years, Neil would come up and stay w/ Jim Clay and tend his booth. In those five years he sold one call! The last year he came up, he told Jim and me, "boys, I  just can't afford to travel up here year after year and only sell one darn call"! Hind sight being 20/20, I keep kicking myself when I hear those words, "one darn call"! What was I thinking back then??? Neil told me years later, "bet you and Jim wish you would have bought those calls each year before I left, would have sold them to you for $25.00 each"! That may have been one of the biggest understatements I would ever hear! Oh well, they say history repeats itself...............not in this case! 

Bill

[Ferguson]

That is what it's all about. History of call making and makers at it's best. Thanks for the story/history.

David